


Memories of a Lost Time

by obisgirl



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: 7x11 The Secret Garden, Gen, Once Upon A Time, post episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 08:52:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13900563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obisgirl/pseuds/obisgirl
Summary: Rogers comes home after the events of 7x11, finds Tilly passed out on his couch watching Netflix and an empty jar of marmalade. As Rogers connects with her, he has memory flashes he doesn’t understand.





	Memories of a Lost Time

**Author's Note:**

> Once Upon a Time characters are the property of Disney and Adam Horowitz, Edward Kitsis. This fanfic is for pure entertainment.

What a night, Rogers thinks as he finally makes his way home.  He and Weaver stayed at the garden arboretum longer than he expected, questioning Ivy and Eloise.  

 

Rogers seriously did not believe that Eloise could be capable of such cruelty that led to Victoria’s death.   Everything that had been going on lately in Hyperion Heights didn’t make any sense to him and it made even less sense once he and Weaver call it a night, and he gets into the car with his partner and Weaver starts talking to him about fairytales.  

 

What do bloody fairytales have to do with what is happening?

 

This isn’t Disney.

 

Still, Rogers listens to Weaver explain to him about Victoria, Ivy and Eloise and that they are different people from another land. Just like he is, and Rogers too.  Weaver gets as far as explaining that Rogers is an alternative version of Captain Hook (okay, that could explain his fake hand), and Weaver is someone named Rumpelstiltskin, but also his crocodile; but they patched things up in another life.

 

Surprisingly.

 

Then Weaver starts talking about someone else, a girl with blond hair and blue eyes and Rogers knows, his partner is talking about Tilly. That’s where Rogers demands to stop talking about such nonsense; fairytales aren’t real and there has to be some other explanation for what is really going on.  

 

“If you can find one detective, please let me know,” Weaver says, finally letting him off at his apartment.

 

Rogers gets out of the car, slams the door and looks at him.  “I’ll see you in the morning at the station,” he says, waves goodnight and goes home.  Weaver pulls away and leaves him.

 

Rogers fumbles nervously with his keys, ironically, a hook and a skull and crossbones on it and opens his door. He comes inside and finds Tilly passed out on his couch, Netflix still turned on and an empty jar of marmalade and wheat bread.  He left the girl in his apartment, hoping that she could find other food than that damn jam to eat but a favorite is a favorite.

 

As soon as Rogers turns off the TV, Tilly wakes groggily, rubs her eyes and looks at him, smiling.  “Oh, evening detective,” she says.

 

“Tilly, please tell me you had more than this jam and bread to eat for your dinner?” he asks her, cleaning up.

 

Tilly shrugs.  “I like marmalade jam and bread,” she reasons,  “Although I did find chicken and shrimp potstickers in your refrigerator.  Those are all gone. Most everything you have is frozen food,”

 

“Detective’s work doesn’t allow time to cook good dinners,” he smiles at her sarcastically.

 

Tilly sits up and helps him clean but he tells her to relax where she is and he’ll take care of it. After he’s done, Tilly starts to clean up herself and leave. She starts to go, then turns back and hugs him suddenly.

 

It feels weird for Rogers to hug Tilly but it doesn’t feel unfamiliar either.  He can’t put his finger on it but something about this girl, taking care of her, feels right.  Then he thinks about Weaver’s fairytale explanation in the car. That feels really ridiculous and but then as he’s hugging her, Rogers starts to see flashes.  

 

Of Tilly.

 

But it’s not Tilly.  She’s dressed in a blue and red dress, her hair done in a different way and she’s in a forest, in a camp.  She seems happy, sad too but looks really beautiful and she says something, that looks like a four letter word with a question mark.

 

_‘Papa?’_

 

Rogers backs away immediately from Tilly and she looks at him embarrassed but smiles anyway.  “Thanks for letting me stay here detective,” she says and kisses his cheek.

 

That’s when he has another stronger flash.  

 

He sees himself wearing a black leather pirate costume and a red vest.  He seems really happy and relieved, and there’s not quite Tilly again, still dressed in blue, happy to see him. They start to hug and then he’s pushed and catapulted away, a green light glowing on his heart.  Tilly shouts at him and she runs off into the woods.

 

When he shakes out of the trance, Tilly is looking at him all concerned.  “Detective, are you alright?” she asks him, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,”

 

He cocks an eyebrow and looks at her.  “Perhaps I have,” he reasons.

 

Tilly studies him curiously, then goes to his kitchen and starts to make him tea.  She found some tea earlier somewhere and makes a mug. Rogers sits down on his couch, head in his hands and trying to make sense of what he saw. Tilly comes back with a hot mug of tea, blueberry and gives it to him. It’s hot but soothing.

 

Tilly sits on the couch next to him, waiting for him to speak.

 

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asks him finally.

 

He looks up at her seriously.  

 

“What happened tonight with Weaver? It wasn’t good, was it?” she continues.

 

“No, it wasn’t. Victoria Belfrey is dead,” he says and Tilly frowns.

 

Tilly isn’t really sure why but she grasps his real hand and holds it. Rogers looks down at it and he has another flash.  This time, he sees a version of himself caring for a young baby, singing her a lullaby and calling her a name. Rogers starts to panic and nearly knocks over his tea on his carpet.

 

“Hey, hey, something else is going on,” Tilly notes, “You get all fidgety and weird when you’re around me,”

 

“None of this makes any bloody sense!” he fumes finally, remembering what Weaver said about fairy tales but there’s also the flashes.  They feel so vivid and clear; they also feel like memories of a lost time.

 

Tilly doesn’t know what to say and sighs.  “Victoria Belfrey’s never been a particularly popular lady around here, so I can’t say that I’m sorry that she’s gone,” she says.  

 

“No, no, not about Victoria,” Rogers corrects her, looking at her finally, “I’m talking about you Tilly,”

 

She cocks her eyebrow the way he does. “ **_Me_ **? I don’t understand,”

 

“I don’t either,” he notes, “But Weaver told me an interesting tale on our way back here. He said that Ivy, Eloise, Victoria and meself were fairytale characters, alternative ones from another realm,”

 

“Fairytale characters?” Tilly echoes, studying him and then breaks out into a hearty laugh. “Fairytale characters, really?  That’s ridiculous. Who are you supposed to be?”

 

“Captain Hook, or a different version of him anyway,”

 

Tilly looks at his fake hand and shrugs.  “You do have _that_ but you don’t strike me as Captain Hook. For one, you’re too young for the role. Dustin Huffman played him better, Christopher Walken, even though he was as high as a kite during that live adaptation,”

 

Rogers looks at her oddly and shakes his head. “You’re not helping,” he mutters.

 

Tilly sighs, propping up her and legs and sitting Indian style on the couch. “Say for a moment that what Weaver told you was real, it’s still impossible,” she notes.

 

“I don’t know. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t,” he reasons, “but these flashes…”

 

“What flashes?”

 

Rogers sighs, takes her hand again and holds it.  There’s no flash this time and he starts to let go of her hand but Tilly holds onto him. “See anything?” she queries.

 

“No,”

 

“But you saw things before,” Tilly continues, “What did you see the first time?”

 

“I saw _you_ ,” he says,  “But you were dressed differently. Wearing this blue and red barmaid dress or something but you looked really beautiful,”

 

Tilly scrunches her nose and nods.  “Okay, so I think it’s time for me to leave and call it a night,” she says, getting up from the couch.

 

“Tilly,” Rogers calls after her and even runs after her, touching her shoulder to stop. He has another flash, meeting Tilly in the woods, during the rain and talking to her about something sad.  

 

“This is getting **_weird_ ** ,” Tilly says, “You need lots of sleep detective and I need to go,”

 

“No, love, it’s not what you think,”

 

“Then what is it then?” she cries,  “What are these flashes you keep having when you’re around me?”

 

“I don’t bloody know what they are; all I know is that you’re someone really important to me. Like family or something,” Rogers manages, “Anyway, I don’t want you to go. It’s not safe out there,”

 

Tilly shrugs.  “You have Eloise and Ivy in custody, I assume; I’ll be fine,” she says.  

 

“Tilly,” Rogers says again and touches her shoulder.  

 

He has another flash but this time, there’s audio with his visions.  He sees himself chasing after blonde a seven-year-old girl with happy blue eyes in a tower, trying to get her to take her bath.  “Alice, slow down! Alice!”

 

“Alice,” Rogers breaths and looks at Tilly, really looks at her, “You’re Alice,”

 

“Alice, as in Alice from _Alice in Wonderland_?” Tilly questions,  “I suppose it makes sense.  Kind of,”

 

Rogers touches her shoulder again and pulls her into a longing hug.  

 

It’s all coming back now.

 

The cursed heart, being separated and Alice trapped in the tower because of her mother, Hook coming in and trying his best to take care of the child.  

 

Alice - Tilly is his daughter.

 

“What does this mean?” Tilly asks him.

 

She doesn’t remember who she is to him.  He could tell her but would she believe him?

 

“Detective?” she asks him again.

 

“Papa,” he corrects her.

 

Alice cocks an eyebrow and looks at him.  “Seriously? You do not even look old enough to be my father,” she retorts.

 

“Tilly, I know that this doesn’t make any sense and I don’t understand all of it either but we’re family,” he says, “We were cursed, twice; first me with the cursed heart and now, we’re here in Seattle,”

 

Tilly sighs.  “How come I don’t remember?” she counters.

 

“I don’t know,”

 

“It’s a nice idea detective,” Tilly says, “but you and I both know fairytales aren’t real.  This doesn’t mean I don’t care about you anymore,”

 

Hook’s heart breaks to hear her say that.  He understands, Tilly doesn’t. She doesn’t remember and it might take time for her to remember. He has to stay separated from her awhile longer until she does. Be patient.

 

Tilly smiles at him, leans up and kisses his cheek.  

 

Suddenly, a powerful migraine hits her and she has flashes too.  She sees Hook, remembers their time in the tower, playing chess and even trying to make things with his hair as a child.

 

Alice backs away, her head still pounding and looks at her papa.  “Why is it you got flashes and I get a bloody awful headache? That hardly seems fair!” she cries.

 

Hook smiles, picks up and hugs her.  Despite her headache, Alice starts laughing and giggling, feeling like a child again, in a time before her papa was cursed and they were happy together.  He puts her down finally and she smiles up at him.

 

“You remember now sweetheart?”

 

“I remember now papa,” Alice confirms, still unable to believe after all this time, she can actually hug her papa. She starts crying happy tears, feeling so overwhelmed. “I missed you so much, papa,”

 

“Oh, I missed you Alice, my sweet baby girl,” he cries, hugging her again and kissing her forehead.

 

Alice hugs him tight, still crying.  “You know what we need now?” she adds, “ **_More bloody potstickers_ ** , lots of them!”

 

Hook laughs and hugs her close. “At least in this realm, you’ve found a new favorite food,” he laughs.

 

They have all night to catch up on recent events and just rejoice in their new reality that they don’t have to worry about the cursed heart and can be a normal family here in Hyperion Heights.  This is their chance to start over and have the father-daughter relationship they couldn’t have in the Enchanted Forest.

 

A new beginning, starting with a new favorite food and no more lost time and sad memories.

 

The End  
  



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